I might be the big sister, but my sis Naomi is way more daring than I am when it comes to hair and makeup stuff. She loves her bright colours and throwing all of them together in looks that work surprisingly well. Obviously, since both of us are huge fans of Urban Decay, it was only a matter of time until she would add the UD Electric palette to her collection. As it turns out, I bought it for her birthday about two months ago, and I aksed her to take some pretty pics so I could share this beauty with you guys.

Sometimes (OK often), you scroll across a beauty product that is just to perfect not to buy: affordable, pretty AND you see yourself using it regularly. This Sleek makeup highlighting palette in Solstice was one of those items. I threw it in my basket when I ordered Ghoulish at Beauty & Bobs because I felt like it was time I updated my highlighting routine. Since I had been using the highlighter from my Sleek Face Form kit so much, I felt like I would not be disappointed by sticking with Sleek.

Rituals has plenty of gorgeous products (their deodorants, facial cleansers, body creams and fragrances are my go-tos), and I think most people could pick out a favourite "ritual" (collection) from their offer. There's the Sakura line (cherry blossom, my pick), Laughing Buddha (orange and cedar wood), Tao (white lotus and yi yi ren), Hammam (eucalyptus and rosemary), Oriental Dream (cocoa and almond) and, finally, the collection I will be talking about today: Ayurveda. The Ayurveda line is based on Indian rose (complemented with almond and honey), and since my sister goes weak in the knees for anything rose-scented, the Ayurveda ritual is her fav.

Which is kind of ironic, because we grew up with these super New-Age parents who seemed to be into some new Deepak Chopra book or lentil dish or yogi tea every week. I grew up surrounded by stuff like Ayurvedic cookbooks and I remember my dad telling me my Dosha nature was the Vata. I can't say that their overbearing weirdness sparked an affinity with the whole concept of Ayurveda with me - give me ratio over faith and mindfulness and all that shiz any day of the week. But here we are, 15 years later, with me giving my favourite little sister a gorgeous gift box containing most of the Rituals Ayurveda collection. She could use a little pick-me-up because she's been buried under an avalance of school work, and that's where big sisters come in!

Hi guys! I hope you're enjoying that (faux) marble backdrop, because you will be seeing a LOT of it in my upcoming product reviews. I know it's a ridiculously cliché beauty-blogger thing to do, but I honestly love the clean, classy look of marble as a product backdrop, and it is SO easy to have a set-up that always works, because it definitely helps save time when preparing blogposts. I bought a roll of self-adhesive wallpaper (if that's what you call "plakfolie" in English, lulz) in a marble print and used it to freshen up an old Ikea table. You can find a roll for like 5-10€, and it's so easy to put together a good photo set-up that way. Can't recommend it enough!

Anyway, to get back to the point of this post: I received some Galénic products, and after trying this Ophycée primer, I felt I needed to share my experiences with you guys. I don't generally use primer (other than eyeshadow primer) because in my experience, primers never give the result I expect. Usually they make my skin look dry and my makeup seem cakey and uneven, and because my foundation is already pretty high coverage and has great staying power, I don't feel like I need a primer.

Over the holidays, I sort of looked back on the year, as you do, and realized that I didn't share all of my travel content. I still had one daytrip's worth of French holiday pictures sitting in my folder, and since winter is just about to really kick in around these parts, I figured this would be the perfect time to dip my toes into those Provençale heatwave days of yore, if only in thought. This day we drove down to Nîmes, a town known for its well preserved Roman arena ruins.

The day was incredibly hot (probably about 35°C), the sun was relentless, and while my boyfriend and his kids barely survived the heat, I was floating. Something about the crisp contrast between the cool interior of the ruins and the feeling of being in a sunheated stone oven once you step out just makes me completely unable to stress or worry. Heatwaves are just about the only thing that force me to live in the moment. Sun induced mindfulness, man. Anyway, here are some pictures of a blissful day of leisurely exploring Nîmes and some Roman ruins!

Over the last two years, liquid lipsticks have become more and more prominent in the beauty world. Beauty lovers have become more preoccupied with lips, thanks to Ms. Kylie Jenner, and full, matte lips in neutral colours are the look we're all lusting after. Long lasting, matte drying, perfectly opaque liquid lipsticks are the perfect way to achieve that look, but SO many of the affordable liquid lipstick options I've tried are just total and utter crap. The biggest issue I've encountered is flaking: simply moving your lips, or reapplying product where the lipstick has worn off, can result in a crumbly, flaking mess that feels completely gross on the lips, and looks even worse. Another common issue is liquid lipsticks being insanely drying, even moreso than regular matte lipsticks, making your lips feel like they're on the verge of cracking as you talk/eat/move your lips.

Not hot.

However, my sister raved to me about the LA Splash liquid lipsticks, and when I browsed their colour selection (as you do when you're a make up fiend like I am), I was immediately ready to click a couple of 'em over to my shopping basket. LA Splash has crazy duochromes, soft neutrals and bright colours: whatever look you prefer, LA Splash has got it. More importantly, the liquid lipsticks are pretty affordable for being on-trend, high quality, indie products that have not been tested on animals. Most Belgian (f.e. Beauty & Bobs) or Dutch (f.e. Boozyshop) webshops sell these for €15,99, and at $14, these are even cheaper if you buy them in the U.S.

None of that means anything if the formula sucks, though, so let's dive into my review!

I don't have a lot of experience with mineral makeup, and I don't know why. Mineral makeup is generally praised for its lack of irritants (like preservatives, parabens, mineral oil, chemical dyes or fragrance), and looking at the ingredient list, it's quite clear that these Bellapierre pigments are something else: they only contain mica and titanium dioxide, while the eyeshadow palette I had lying around from & Other Stories has an ingredient list at least five times as long. You can check your own makeup stash and come to the same conclusion.

This paired down simplicity makes it a good option for people who have sensitive skin or suffer from makeup allergies. As I have rosacea (although I haven't noticed it flaring up because of irritants), mineral makeup seems like a good option for me. It should come as no surprise that when I received these three jars of mineral pigment by Bellapierre, I was excited to start my first forray into mineral makeup!